1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to use of a catalyst composition comprising an active form of an improved, stable crystalline layered silicate related to Silica-X. In particular, this invention relates to use of such a catalyst composition in a process for converting feedstock comprising hydrocarbon compounds to product comprising hydrocarbon compounds of lower molecular weiqht than feedstock hydrocarbon compounds, e.g. cracking and dewaxing.
2. Description of the Invention
Silica-X having a silica/alumina mole ratio of 70 was prepared at 800.degree. C. by Endell (Koll. Zietschrift, 111, 19-22 (1948)). Silica-X was subsequently reported in 1964 as a silica polymorph phase during the thermal transformation of amorphous silica to quartz (A. Heydemann, Beiti Z. Miner. Petrog., 10, 242-259 (1964)). In 1967 it was reported in The American Minerologist, 52, 1662-1668 (1967), that Silica-X was synthesized from silicic acid. Over the course of crystallization, three separately identifiable phases were noted. The first phase to appear was Silica-X, the second cristobalite and the third quartz. It was concluded there that in such synthesis a monotropic transformation was taking place which tended toward the most stable phase, i.e. quartz.